Introduction

This
website also deals with the subject of "bootlegs".
Why, anyway, will you ask yourself? This is done
solely for the protection of consumers. I do not
offer and sell bootlegs! Every demand is
meaningless!

I want to put fallacies out of the way here.

For many years, it was widely believed that offering
and selling such bootlegs was not a copyright
infringement. This is unfortunately wrong. Bootlegs
are illegal, unless the artists involved
subsequently authorize the bootleg recording. The
assumption that bootlegs are legal seems to have
arisen because over several decades such bootlegs
have not been prosecuted. On the contrary, many
bands have even stated to journalists over and over
again that they are collecting bootleg recordings of
their own bands.

Bootlegs exist in different quality classes. Partly
one can hardly distinguish these from original live
recordings, which have been published by the
responsible record company as official live sound
recordings.

Is buying a bootleg illegal?
The purchase of such a bootlegs is legally no
problem. But you can get problems if you want to
sell this bootleg later on ebay, discogs, record
exchanges, etc. Even if it is a purely private sale,
you are not acting as a dealer, is with the offering
and a possible sale of the bootleg a copyright
infringement. This can be punished with an
injunction and damages.